Play “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”

February 27, 2012 at 9:34 am · Filed under Activities for Mild Dementia, Activities for Moderate Dementia, Activities for Severe Dementia ·Tagged Alzheimer's, alzheimer's activities, Dementia, dementia activities, dementia reminiscing, Games, music

When I was 16 I was lucky enough to be gifted my grandparents old car.  It was 15 years old, had no headliner,  was missing the hood ornament, and had a radio whose reception intermittently cut in and out.  However, it was a car and it was all mine, so I loved it.  Eventually, I even came to love the broken radio because my friends and invented “Kar Karoke” in which whenever the radio went out, the person who could continue singing the song that had been playing the longest, won.  We always joked that it would be a good game show, kind of a new twist on name that tune (coincidentally, the show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”, in which contestants have to finish singing the lyrics to popular songs, debuted a decade or so after my friends and I first played in my car). 

You can make your own version of this game by either playing songs on CD, on record, or online and stopping it.  Or, you can simplifying sing the songs using only your voice.  The chorus or first verse of a song is generally the easiest to remember, but you may find that even the latter verses of favorite songs are still in long-term memory if you go looking for them.  Also, don’t be discouraged if the game is hard at first,  Sometimes singing the songs all the way through first helps to “prime” the memory, so when you sing it a second time with a few lyrics missing, it’s easier to remember. 

Of course, if playing “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” is too hard,  just have an old-fashioned sing along.  Some people find it helpful to have the lyrics of the song in front of them to help jog their memory, others find this distracting, so experiment and see what works best for you and your loved one.

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